But We Remain
by thekeyunderthemat
Summary: Fleur/Hermione. Post DH2. Bill Weasley died in the battle of Hogwarts (not Fred). Fleur must face her life without her husband and maybe move on with his advice.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**A/N: Hello everyone. I have to say that it was not long ago that I found this ship, but it did not take long to jump into it. After reading a few fictions, I was inspired and decided to try something out. This is the result. I still don't really know if this works and where is going in the long run, but I hope you like it.**

**Concept: Fred didn't died in the Hogwarts Battle, but Bill Weasley did. Fleur Weasley Delacour must keep on living, trying to move on following his own advice.**

The music is playing in the radio I turned on simply to fill in the quiet. While everyone is sure to be out celebrating, I can't bring myself to do so. Yes, Voldemort is finally dead, the war has ended, the people is overjoyed. Yet for those who sustain the loses of that war, a different celebration must take place. The mourning.

While the radio keeps playing in the background, I am neatly folding my clothes and the rest of my things and putting them into boxes. When I stumble upon one of his favorite leather coat, I pause. I take it from the wardrobe and put it around me. It's too big, but it's nice, because I find myself enveloped in his scent.

My husband is gone. Forever. A casualty of the war. A ripped piece of my heart.

I must leave Shell Cottage. Aunt Muriel insisted I should keep the property, keep living here, but I can't bring myself to do so. This safe house brings too many memories from him and the war, some very good, some terrible, that I can't keep on facing alone.

It is also too big for just one person. It was thought to be a family house... and my family has been destroyed.

After a while, I take off the leather coat, put it between my things and continue packing, but I hear a distant knock on the door and go to check.

A man in a suit and a formal cloak is waiting at the door. He seems familiar but I don't remember ever talking to him.

"Mrs. Weasley?" He says gravely. "I am Richard Smith. It's a pleasure to see you again." Aha, so in fact I have seen him before. "I am William's lawyer."

I silently nod and step inside, opening the door for him to enter. We sit in the living room and he sighs.

"Do you want some tea, Mr. Smith?" I snap to the role of hostess.

"No, thanks. I don't want to be more of a burden." He says nervously.

"It's not a burden." I stand up and occupy myself. I can imagine why William's lawyer is sitting in our living room for. The man thanks me from his spot while I prepare everything. When I can't possibly take any longer, I come back to the man.

"Well..." He says gravely. "There is no easy way to broach this. I am here because of William's will."

"I supposed so." He extracts a folder from his briefcase and reads over it.

"His wish, in the case something happened to him, was that you would have everything. This house, your savings... everything." I nod. "He was a good man. I knew him for a long time. He also wished for you to be happy." He extracts an envelope from his folder. "He gave me this in the middle of the war. He wanted me to give it to you in case something happened to him. Not as a lawyer, but as a friend."

I take the heavy envelope. "What does it say?"

"I don't know." He shakes his head. "I am just the messenger. He only said that he hoped it gave you closure and the strength to be happy again."

I look down at the envelope and brush the tears away a bit with the sleeve of my shirt. Mr. Smith coughs.

"Now, I think you need privacy to read that. I don't want to impose anymore." He leaves the folder on the coffee table. "Here are the deeds and everything. I have also added my contact information, if you wish to discuss something else."

"I might take you up on that, Mr. Smith. I am leaving this house, too many memories, and I wish to return the property to Aunt Muriel's."

"I understand." He nods. "If you wish, I could look into it and prepare it for you."

"That'd be very helpful."

The man stands up and shakes my hand. "Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Weasley. And see you soon."

"See you soon, Mr. Smith." I close the door and can hear a faint 'pop' as he reaches the end of our wards and apparates away. I sit again in front of the fire in the living room and refill my teacup.

I take a deep breath, open the envelope and start reading his handwriting.

_My dear Fleur, my love,_

_If you are reading this letter, it can only mean one thing. I am so sorry, my dear. Coming into a war, there were certain risks that we had to take and they haven't paid off as well as I had expected._

_But don't fret, love. We have made the most of our time together. I believe we have been as happy as and have loved as much as we could. If I'm gone now, be sure that I have left with this knowledge and the faith that I have left you in a better world without Him._

_I want you to be happy. I know it must seem easy for those who are gone to say it, that is always harder on the people that are left behind, but I truly mean it. When you are ready, you need to do whatever you need to do to be happy, because life is simply too short and you deserve every bit of it._

_You could point your beautiful blue sky eyes towards a new love. I know, my dear Fleur, that you loved me very much, but I also know that I was not the mate destined to your veela part. And you should go for it. After all of this is over, you both will need someone to lean on and you could build together an epic love. I really believe so._

_Yes, my dear Fleur. I already had my suspicions for a long time, but it became quite clear your connection with her when she arrived to our home in such a bad shape and I have known ever since. Your mate is such an incredible woman, in fact I don't think your part veela could have chosen any better. As they say, the brightest witch of her age._

_Hermione Granger is now a beautiful woman that will sure love you as much as I did if you just let her into your life. Just... let her into your life and give yourself that chance._

_Je t'aime, mon Fleur._

_Toujours,_

_William_

She couldn't have fallen in love with a more perfect man and it still surprised her that the quarter veela in her didn't fall right over. The tears that really haven't subsided since she started reading, grow thicker and blur her sight making it easier for her to imagine him sitting in his favorite armchair making notes for work on his black leather notebook.

A few weeks after I found myself dragging the last of the boxes with my things into my new rented apartment in a magic neighborhood in London. I wondered for a while if I should go back to France, back to my family and my sister, who has always been my best friend.

However, although at first I loathed this country, it has become my home. My job is in London, in Diagon's Alley, I have made some friends and I just have invested too much in creating peace in Britain to flee now back to France.

"That was the last of the boxes, right?" Fred has levitated one to my new bedroom and meets me in the living room.

I check. "Yes. That was it." I nod. "Thank you again, Fred. I don't know what I would have done without your help." I smile at him.

He opens his arms and hugs me. It feels nice and my eyes start to fill with tears again.

"You are welcome." He says, retracting from the hug. "You know we are always here for you. Our shop is not far at all." He smiles. "It'll get easier, I hope. And when it does, you'll just have to keep pinching us so we don't become bloody fools again." He jokes.

But it's true. Ever since William died, the veela's thrall has subsided. My family says it will come back with time, when my body recovers emotionally too. I smile at Fred.

"Now, I must go back to the shop. George is all by himself there, he'll need the help."

"Of course, Fred. I shouldn't have taken so much of your time. Thank you again."

"It's nothing, really." He shakes his head again. "Do you mind if we drop off after closing? George said he wanted to take a look at the place and make sure it has every ward we know."

I smile at the twins worry, even after Voldemort is gone. "Of course. But that doesn't sound too good. Let's just say it's a housewarming party, shall we?"

"We shall." Fred nods again with a bigger smile. "We'll bring some wine and food. I insist." He says. "I think you'll have enough tidying this house up." He chuckles as he looks around and walks through the door. "See you later, Fleur."

"À bientôt, Fred."

And Fred isn't wrong. I spend the rest of my day looking for a new place for all my things. My heart aches just when I first packed them at my old home, but I have to do this.

The afternoon is getting late when I am finally satisfied. I have managed to fill the space and it fills nice, homey. There is still work to do, but I'm happy with the result so far. I sit down on my sofa and take in the place from this angle. Yes, it looks good and it is very comfy...

I didn't mean to fall asleep, not at all. But the next time I open my eyes is to the sound of the doorbell. A look at the window and the colour of the sky lets me know that I must have slept over an hour.

I yank the door open and find the twins.

"Finally!" George exclaims. It is easier to tell them apart now because George wears a fake ear that sometimes changes colours.

"We thought you had apparated back to France or something." Fred finishes. I shake my head with a smile and I notice that they are not alone.

"I know I said it was going to be just us, but we run into this trio here and thought they would add some to this housewarming party." Fred explains.

I step to the side to let everyone in. George gives me a one arm hug and he makes his way into the apartment.

"Hello, Fleur. It's good to see you." Harry Potter greets me too. "Is it okay that we came? We didn't want to impose, but they insisted." He says meekly.

"It's okay. It is nice to see you again." I smile. Ronald enters next and we exchange pleasantries. But I am already distracted with the woman behind him, closing the door.

"Hello, Fleur. How are you doing?" She asks me as she steps in front of me and gives me a brief hug.

"Fine, I guess." I shrug. She squeezes a bit my shoulders and lets go, giving me a smile.

I show them the little apartment and we finally settle in the living room. Harry helps me with the plates and glasses while the twins open the containers of the Chinese food they have brought.

The conversation is fluid and I find myself having more fun than I have ever since he died. I think about him and how he would be laughing along to what his brothers have just said. Something must reflect in my face, because suddenly I sense a squeeze in my hand.

I follow it to the source and I find Hermione looking at me with worry in her brown eyes. I should follow his advice. After all, William used to know me even better than I knew myself. But I promise myself that I will never forget him.

I turn my hand up and squeeze right back, shaking the sadness from my face and joining in the laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter.**

**A/N: Thank you for all the follows and the comments. Here is a new, slightly shorter chapter to see how this is developing. Hope you like it.**

**Chapter - 2**

The trio explain how they ended up today on Diagon Alley and decided to visit the twins rising empire. They have found a promising business doing what they like best and it is inspiring, so I tell them so, and then George lets me in on a little secret about their beginnings.

"You gave them the Triwizard prize?! One thousand galleons?" Apparently I am not the only one that didn't know. Ronald is also surprised, but not really that much, because despite it all, he must understand his friend.

"They needed it and I honestly didn't." He shrugs. The twins wink at him flirtatiously and Hermione shakes her head in disbelief, but all the same she is laughing along. "The whole competition was rigged and... I honestly couldn't keep it after everything."

The memories of Cedric and Voldemort's return dampen the mood. It is astonishing the quantity of sad memories all of us have gathered in our fairly short lives. I mean... I am the oldest person in the room and I am only twenty one. I truly admire Harry Potter and his character.

The conversation gives away and we can't have that tonight... I change the topic. "So... what are you going to do now?" I don't need to explain what now I am referring to. The three of them are very aware of it.

"Well... we have been offered an early start in our Auror training." Harry starts. "We were studying with that in mind and now they need more people and fast to get a hand on all of the Death Eaters and make sure they are judged correctly."

Ron nods. "Also, Kingsley is devising a new Azkaban without dementors and he is going to need as many hands as possible."

We have by now finished our dinner and now we are left sipping wine and enjoying conversation. "So all of you are starting Auror training then?" I ask looking at Hermione, who still hasn't said anything.

The girl shakes her head. "Just the two of them." She sips her wine. "I don't think I am cut off for that kind of job." She shakes her head. I am sure that she has given this a lot of thought, every possibility carefully taken into consideration. "I mean... before and during the war I did what I had to do, but I find it very exhausting and I don't think I want to follow that line of work."

I nod. I really understand her. It is not that she is not capable of doing it -after the war, she is probably more capable than some of the Aurors in place- but if it's a job that doesn't fulfill her, then it is not worth it.

I lean over the arm of the couch, making myself more comfortable while still giving her all my attention.

"I think..." She starts. "I want to work with the Ministry to help right some of the wrongs they have made in the past few years." She laughs to herself and answers my disbelieving look. "It is kind of funny. I clearly remember telling Scrimgeour that I would never follow a career in Magical Law at the Ministry because I wanted to do some good in the world." That brings a smile to her friends. "But I guess now things are different and I think I can do some good from within it."

"So what are you doing now?" I ask.

"I am taking my N.E.W.T.S. soon and I am looking into further education." She sips. "Hopefully, after the elections Kingsley is organizing, I can take part of the new Ministry." Kingsley Shacklebolt was appointed Minister of Magic. However one of the first things he put in place was a date for a real election, much in a muggle fashion.

"So you are going back to Hogwarts." George states, but it is kind of a question.

As Hermione shakes her head, I can't contain myself. "She is so brilliant, she doesn't need to." I blush a little under her inquisitive stare about the compliment, but I am saved as Harry speaks next.

"Yeah. She has been mastering N.E.W.T.S. level spells since our second year." He chuckles. "And they came mighty useful in more than one occasion."

"And I remember when in our first year she called a text book with a thousand pages a 'light read'." Ron follows. "And some of it came very useful too. Did you guys know that you can't apparate on Hogwarts grounds?" He finishes with fake wonderment. They all laugh and shake their heads at the young red head.

Hermione laughs nervously too and I find myself squeezing her hand in support. "I just don't understand how all of you attended Hogwarts without reading the book about the institution." She accuses.

"I read it." I pinch in. "Madame Maxime wanted us to, so I obliged. It was interesting."

"See? And she didn't technically attend the school." Hermione exclaims.

Harry shrugs, but Ron and his brothers look at each other and finally Fred answers. "Well, we sure know about more passages to the school than the book." He wiggles his eyebrows in a way that implies the many naughty things those passages have helped to do.

I laugh heartily and the wine makes me hallucinate that there is a twinkle in Hermione's eyes at the sound. "I have heard many stories about your mischiefs, but I have always thought they were blown way out of proportions."

"They tried to send me a toilet seat as a get well soon present to the hospital wing once. Madame Pomfrey didn't allow it." Harry chuckles.

"I wonder why..." I muse, cracking up.

The twins smirk and Hermione shakes her head. "Everybody thought they were funny, but they were a nightmare!" She exclaims. "And they were my nightmare when I was appointed Prefect of their House."

"I was a Prefect too." Ron says meekly.

"You didn't care about it, Ronald!" Hermione huffs indignantly. I notice now that they are seated at complete opposite sides and I wonder if something happened between them. She looks at me. "Those two were trying their puking pastilles and the nose bleeds on the first years!" She explains.

"Oh mon Dieu! That sounds really dangerous!" I snap.

The list of mischiefs the twins did in their Hogwarts time fill the rest of the night with laughter. When the bottles of wine are emptied, my friends remember the supposed objective of their visit and they start suggesting some effective wards to put around the appartment.

"I'm impressed, Fleur. You have some potent wards up." Harry finally says.

"Harry... my job basically consists in breaching the wards of abandoned vaults... you surely didn't expect my apartment to be unprotected, huh?" I hear a high-pitched chuckle.

"Why didn't you say that before?" George asks.

"Because this way you had the perfect excuse for this get together." I shrug. "And I have had a good time. Have you?" The twins smile in perfect synch and nod.

"Yeah." Harry and Ron say too.

Fred and George leave first to apparate to the apartment over their shop. Then, Ron and Harry go to apparate at Grimmauld Place.

"Thank you for everything, Fleur." Hermione says as she lingers near the stairs. "It's been a lovely evening."

"Thank you for keeping me company." I shrug. I didn't know how much I was missing them too. She smiles and puts her hand on the banister. "Aren't you apparating home too?" I ask.

"Oh no." She shakes her head. "I actually live nearby."

"Yeah?"

She smiles. "Yes, in this same neighborhood. I was planning on walking there. The fresh air will help me with the little buzz of the wine." I nod with a huff, as I am feeling myself a little buzzed too. "Hey, you know what? We should totally take advantage of this living in the same neighborhood thing."

"Yeah..." I say excited but skeptical. "Do you want to?" I didn't think she liked me very much. She mostly tolerated me. But maybe something has changed and this and the hand squeezes mean we can at least be friends.

"Yes." She says. "I know we aren't exactly friends yet, but... we can be, can't we?" She comes back near my door.

"I'd like that, yes." I nod without a doubt. "But I thought you found me snobbish..."

She takes a deep breath and seems to decide for honesty. "Fleur, you were a snob." She accuses me. "You came into Hogwarts criticizing everything... I found you annoying that way." She chuckles. "And I was fourteen and still pretty immature." She shakes her head. "I now know that you are actually a wonderful person and I am sorry it took me this long, but I would really like to be your friend." She says very seriously.

I can't do anything but smile and nod my head. She seems content. "So what are you doing this weekend? Do you think we could get together?"

"My weekend is wide open." I simply say and she smiles.

"Okay... so let's plan something for Friday after work?"

"Perfect."

I feel a squeeze in my hand -when did hers catch mine?- and she is walking away. "I'll send you an owl." She puts a hand on the banister and peers back at me. "À bientôt?"

"À bientôt, Hermione." Yes, see you soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

**A/N: Hope you like it.**

**Chapter - 3**

The next morning, I must go back to work. The goblins accepted begrudgingly my leave for personal reasons, but they won't tolerate much more drama. Still, I appreciate the lack of empathy towards human feelings from them... they do not treat me now any differently from before.

And the relationship is still very strained with humans since the trio robbed the bank and freed the dragon. If they were distrustful before, now the situation is unsustainable. It really doesn't help me that I am friends with the three of them. However, like it or not, the goblins need my expertise and my wand to rehabilitate the abandoned vaults for the ever expanding wizarding community.

On Friday, after the whole day in the depths of the Gringott's tunnels, I wish the goblins a good weekend -although they do not return the feeling- and head outside. I apparate back to the apartment and have a much deserved shower to wash away all the grim and ash I have accidentally triggered while trying to open one of the abandoned vaults. I let the hot water relax my back and come out of the bath almost a new person.

I choose a pair of tight but still comfortable dark jeans and a long sleeved blue shirt. We still haven't decided where we will be going and it seems like the kind of outfit in between formal and informal. Then, with time to spare, I decide to walk to our meeting point.

"Hello, Fleur." She gives me a brief hug. "Did I make you wait long?"

I look at my watch and she couldn't have been more punctual. "No, not at all." I shake my head. "How are you?"

"Fine, I guess." I frown. "I am a little stressed out with all the studying for the N.E.W.T.S." She shakes her head.

"I understand if you need to study, Hermione." I notice we are walking, not sure where, maybe just because she can't seem to stop moving. "We don't have to do this today. We can hang out later, Hermione." I say apprehensive as I stop walking.

"No, no." She shakes her head. "I really want to do this and I also need to take a break, otherwise my head might explode."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

She smiles earnestly. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay, then." We start walking again. "You may not want to hear this, but after they have passed, you probably will feel stupid for all this stressing."

"Probably." She shrugs.

"And at least you don't have to worry about a dangerous Triwizard Tournament right before them." I chuckle.

She suddenly stops, remembering my predicament. "Oh my God." She exclaims. "I can't believe you entered your name willingly to the Goblet, knowing how dangerous it was, but on your last year of school?"

I bite my lip. "Well, we didn't have that many adventures at Beauxbatons." I chuckle. "And it wasn't supposed to be that dangerous in the first place." She huffs.

She grabs my left arm and pulls as she starts to walk, making me follow. "Alright, but you are going to do a great job keeping me from driving myself insane today anyway." I chuckle. She looks around ourselves and notices where we have been walking. "Do you have any preference about where to go tonight?"

"None. I still don't know many places here in London." I shrug. "You?"

"Not really a preference. But I do know a couple of places..."

We end up in an Italian restaurant, sharing a Mediterranean salad, indulging on some authentic Italian pizza and sipping a wonderful wine.

"So I just bored you with my week and my stress... what have you been up to?" Hermione asks.

"I have spent the whole week down in the tunnels, trying to make my way into a couple of vaults." She nods and I can almost see the wheels in her brain spinning.

"What exactly is that you do?" She asks full of curiosity.

"I am sure you know that Gringotts has been the bank of choice for the wizard community in Britain for centuries." She nods. "Well, some of the oldest and deepest vaults, during those centuries some old wizarding families have vanished, maybe because of epidemics, wars or simply because they didn't produce an heir. Those vaults have been left abandoned and their contents are never going to be claimed. Most of the times, we can't even retrieve the key."

I explain how gratifying I find the job. How I need to carefully study what little it is known about each vault, make lists of the most common and uncommon wards used around the years the vault was in use and lay down a plan to get pass them by either removing or triggering them.

How the whole thing requires a level of preparedness and strategy that most people ignores. How I love both the planning and the action that comes after... because after all the studying and planning, the vaults still can give surprises.

And I can't believe how she listens attentively to my whole speech. "Wow. I'm sorry I just went on with that long speech."

"What?" She shakes her head. "Don't apologize. I had no idea what your work entails and I find it very interesting. You clearly are really passionate about your job." She gives me an encouragingly smile. "What kind of surprises can the vault give after all that work?" I look into her eyes and find curiosity

"Well... for instance, we once encountered a muggle missile from World War II set to detonate if the vault was disturbed." She gasps. "But normally the wards consist on magical curses, not muggle weaponry."

"Wow. What was a wizard doing with that kind of thing?"

"I still would like to know that." I chuckle. "And the goblins would too. It gave us quite a fright when it detonated."

"It detonated?" She exclaims.

"Yes." She looks bewildered. "Nobody was hurt too bad." I clarify. "I had cast several protection spells, just in case. When it detonated, the blast only propelled us back."

"It sounds like a dangerous job." She says with a hint of worry.

I shake my head. "We don't usually find missiles in the vaults. The planning reduces the risks and then we take precautions. The most I have suffered from are bruises and cuts. And you can say I have become very good at healing those quickly at this point." I finish without thinking, until I see her hand coming to her neck, exactly where she was bleeding out when she arrived at Shell Cottage. I wince at the memory.

That wound healed in a few seconds, but it took longer to replenish her blood count given the damage from the Cruciatus curse. I feel compelled to slide my hand across the table and squeeze hers.

The waiter arriving with the check is the only thing that breaks the trance in which we seem to be.

She takes the advantage of actually knowing the muggle currency to pay the check even though I protest. She brushes it off and I frown.

"So what would you like to do now?" She pauses to think. "Do you want to go to a bar or something?"

I shrug. "Sure."

But we don't actually set to walk to any bar, we just walk around. After a few minutes walking in silence, she stops, though and I stop too, turning around to face her.

"Fleur... I... thank you." Her hand is back in her neck, where the wound was.

I shake my head. "You already thanked me... and there is no need to..."

"You saved my life." She insists. I could argue that I did not save her life, that it was Dobby who released her friends and they fought to free her, that it was him that brought her to me in bad shape.

I almost lost it right there in the beach. Now that I remember that time, how I acted, it was obvious enough for William, who knew me so well, to noticed that I had found my mate. I wish I could still assure him that even though Hermione is the mate for my veela, I loved him with three quarters of my heart, I still do.

But Hermione was hurt and although only a quarter of myself was completely dedicated to her, seeing the girl in such state was like tearing a part of my heart.

I step closer to Hermione and move her hand away, pressing my own fingertips gently to her neck. Her veins pulse back into my fingers, alive, and there is just a tiny little scar to remember all that suffering. "You are welcome." I simplify my answer with that and a gentle smile. She smiles back, her eyes full of emotion.

As conflicted as the two parts that make me a whole are right now, I can't honestly say that with William sadly gone and once my human soul is healed, I won't fall completely and helplessly in love with this intelligent, passionate and beautiful woman I'm just starting to know.

The pulse under my fingers seems to grow faster and another thing comes to my mind. If I do fall for her, will she ever fall for me? That would be another kind of heartbreak entirely.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter - 4**

After the intense moment, we resume walking without really entering any bar at all. We end up walking back to our neighborhood and simply talking, taking turns to share our experiences and opinions. This time it is only fair that it is me who walks alone home.

When I get home, it is quiet, too quiet. I lose my shoes and leave them by the door and walk bare foot to the gramophone. I choose some jazz music to fill the silence and start getting ready for bed. It is late and I am tired, but I don't feel the least bit sleepy. I take the book I am currently reading and sit on the couch, waiting for the sleep to come so I can go to bed.

And sleep must have come, because I wake up there in the couch, the sun filtering through my windows and the light right on my eyes. The book I was reading is now on the floor, the page I was on surely lost. The vinyl probably ended while I was asleep and the gramophone stopped.

I keep myself busy tidying the apartment, I do all the laundry I have piled up from the whole week, I write a letter to my parents and another to my little sister Gabrielle, who is already at Beauxbatons, probably getting into trouble. I go shopping for groceries and I find myself cooking, baking... and what am I doing with so much food?

Later I am not sure what the logic was supposed to be in this, if maybe it evaded me for a moment or if a devious veela has stolen it, but the next thing I know I am knocking on the door and I hear something from the apartment and I don't know what to do with myself.

"Fleur!" Hermione opens the door and smiles as soon as she sees me.

"I am here to offer some distraction, if you want any of it." She smiles even more widely and steps aside. I enter her apartment for the first time and walk into her large living room. The room is tastefully decorated with pictures, magical and muggle -they don't move!-, and a couple of bookcases, as well as some muggle artifacts, like a television and some others that I am not very sure what they do.

She was obviously seated at the couch and the coffee table is covered in books, very white parchment full of notes and a mug of something still hot.

Hermione closes the door, checks her watch and gasps. "I really didn't know it was so late. I have spent the whole day revising my notes." She waves her wand and the books close, marking the page, and organize themselves away.

"You don't mind the distraction?" She shakes her head and I point at the bag I am carrying. "I brought some food in case you hadn't have dinner yet. I thought perhaps you were to concentrated on your studies and didn't have time to cook, so..." Her hand goes to her stomach at the mention of the food with an awed expression and I have to laugh at the cuteness.

"I actually hadn't thought about eating until now." She sighs. "You are amazing."

I blush a little. "So what do you say you stop studying for the night and we indulge a little."

She nods. "Okay." She points at a table that separates the living room from the kitchenette and I leave my purse and the bag there. "I apologize for the state my apartment is in." She shows me a little around and the only things out of place are the book. Her place is quite simple and practical, but beautiful all the same. "And this is Crookshanks." A huge ginger ball of fur passes us by and speeds in the other direction.

"So do we have dinner now?" She asks.

"Yeah. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah." I get the things I put together in the bag and she simply stares in wonderment. "You cooked?"

"Of course. I worry that you are so busy you live on take outs." I admonish. She chuckles, which tells me my assumption is probably accurate. "Tarte au maroilles et salade verte. I hope you like it."

"It looks amazing, Fleur." We set the table and start eating while speaking about this and that. She compliments my cooking and I compliment her taste in decoration.

"I honestly thought that after all, you probably would go live with Harry and Ronald at Grimmauld's." I comment.

She shakes her head. "I love them very much, but I have already lived with them and now... I wanted my independence, you know?" I nod. "I was living with my parents, then with all the Gryffindors girls from my year and when we finished, I ended up living with them... in a tent... Although that house is much bigger and I was invited to live there, I thought this was my chance for independence."

I look down and struggle saying what has being nagging me for a while. "I thought that you would like to stay near Ronald, that you two had something more going on..."

She winces. "There was a moment I was convinced we did too." She shakes her head. "He just noticed I was a woman at the Yule Ball, you know? Our fourth year!"

I frown. "I always thought that he just was a little slow around me because of the inevitable thrall, but come on..." I check her out intensively, making my point. She blushes and chuckles. "You looked very much like a woman in your Hogwarts uniform when I met you."

"Things changed a lot since that... but when I really thought about it, I didn't feel what I should be feeling for him. I realized that I was just enjoying the attention he finally gave me." She recognizes guiltily. "And he admitted he didn't feel that way either. So we talked and decided to be just friends."

I give her a pointed look. "Guess it is better you just stayed friends."

"He really is a good man." She defends him, a little guilty she laughed along.

"I have no doubt. But he doesn't seem to appreciate you enough." I shrug. "And for what I've seen... you weren't all that compatible."

"Yeah..." She seems lost in her thoughts for a few seconds, but she comes out of them and shrugs it off. "Now, even though I wanted this independence, I still miss them and I find the apartment too quiet at times." The ball of fur settles in a basket in the other end of the living room. She chuckles. "Crookshanks helps with that... and sometimes the tv in the background."

"I haven't watched that much muggle television, but maybe getting a pet would be a good idea for me. I too find my apartment too quiet." I think aloud.

"Fleur?" She says tentatively and I am not sure I like that tone. I look at her. She is sitting against the armrest of the couch, while I am against the other. "What about you? Are you doing okay?"

I shrug. "I am as fine as I can be." She is worried, I can tell. "Why?"

"You know I like to read..." She starts, looking at the hands in her lap. "I found a few years ago a book about Veelas and I had to read it." I know now where this conversation is going and yeah, I do not like it at all. But we talked about her feelings, it would be not fair to close myself to her. She looks at me. "Fleur, it said that veelas die soon after their mates because their nature doesn't allow them to recover from the heartbreak."

I take a leaf out of her book and look at the hands on my lap. "I am not a full blooded veela. I am just a quarter."

"But it is still a part of you." She moves and next thing I know, her hand is over mine's in my lap. I look up. "Fleur, will you be okay?"

"He... William was not my mate, Hermione." She freezes. "I love... loved him with all three quarters of my soul, but he was not the mate for my veela part."

She withdraws and goes back to her sitting position. "I'm so sorry." She says gently. "I was worried... worried that something was happening to you... worried about losing you too." She finishes with a whisper.

After a few beats, I shrug. "It is okay. And he always knew. My human part will resist the heartbreak... but if it had been my mate who had died that day, the veela in me would have died and as it is an essential part of my soul, so would've I."

She gasps. "Fleur... does that mean that you have found your mate? You know who your mate is?" I simply nod. "Have you...?" She winces and doesn't finish the question, she shakes her head, regretting, I guess, starting to ask such a thing.

I am not sure what she was going to finish that question with, but I imagine she is asking if I have done something about it. I know I don't have to answer the unasked question, but I do anyway.

"No..." She puts her hand over mine's again and a sorrowful look. I shrug and gravity makes a tear fall from my eyes. "At least not yet." Her other hand comes to my cheek and wipes it.

"I'm sorry, Fleur. I keep putting my foot in my mouth." She apologizes, sitting back.

"No... I am sorry." I wipe the remnants of the tears in my eyes. "I'm just struggling with the same thing."

She nods. "I am still sorry." She says. "But I understand and I am here if you ever want to talk about it. For whatever you need." She squeezes my hand rather strongly. "I mean it."

"I'll have that in mind." I squeeze back. "And I am here too, you know?"

"How do we always end up having this rather intense conversations?" She asks after a few seconds. I start laughing and she quickly follows.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

**A/N: This week I have watched the pilot of The Tunnel and finally, Mr. Morgan's Last Love, and Clémence is so good in both. If you haven't, I recommend both.**

**This chapter took me a little more and it isn't any longer... I don't know why. Hope you like it. **

**Chapter - 5**

We agree to change the subject to less stressful matters.

"Tell me something I don't know about you, Fleur. Anything..."

I... what? "I... I don't know?" She keeps staring at me, waiting. "I know how to dance cha-cha?"

"That's random." She chuckles.

I shrug. "You said anything."

She continues chuckling and nods. "That's true. Do they teach cha-cha at Beauxbatons?"

"No." I stuck my tongue out at her and close my eyes. Quite childish, but who cares. She laughs. "I had some ballet lessons when I was a kid and in the same studio, they taught cha-cha... I found it more entertaining than ballet..." I explain. "Now is your turn. Tell me something I don't know about you." She huffs. "And be original."

"I am a little afraid of heights." She shrugs. "The guys would play Quidditch for hours and later, Ginny would join too, but I had always some excuse not to."

"Wait a sec..." I intervene. "I remember you flew on a dragon."

"To escape Gringotts! There really was no other way, I looked for it." She explains and I can't help but chuckle. "I have also had to ride on an hipogriff and a thestral, but I can assure you that there was never another option." She shakes her head at the memory. "Your turn again." She finishes.

So many things she doesn't know about me, but what do I choose. "I don't know that much about muggles, but I absolutely love their music. I like to visit old record stores and find little gems."

"You have a bit of a music collection going on?" She wonders. I nod. "What kind of music do you like?"

"I like music from many genres. It depends on my mood." I shrug. "Jazz, R&B, pop, rock... My first English album was Abbey Road."

"Oh, I love The Beatles." She interrupts.

"And I just had to complete my collection after that one." I smile glad that she likes it too.

"What others do you have?" She asks.

"That you may have heard about... The Who, Jackson 5, Etta James, Ray Charles..." She nods approvingly. "Your turn."

I find that she frowns in a very adorable way when she is thinking about something. She finally seems to have found something. "I used to have very big front teeth."

"I actually knew that." I just say and when I see her shocked face, I don't think saying it was such a good idea.

She looks shocked. "You noticed? But... how? Harry and Ron didn't notice for a while and I was with them constantly. We didn't even speak to each other until much later."

I shrug while thinking how to answer. "I noticed things about you and your friends." I simply say. And it is true, but maybe not why she would imagine. "But I do not know how they suddenly shrunk. Did you do it?" I ask before she can continue, dodging her curiosity about how I did notice.

"Malfoy... He was taunting Harry in Potions class, they tried to hex each other but got Goyle and me." I frown. "Malfoy used a hex that made my teeth grow bigger and bigger. I had to go to the Hospital Wing so that Madam Pomfrey stopped it. She held a mirror while she shrunk them and told me to stop her when they were normal again." She smiles wickedly.

I chuckle now. "You let her keep going a little bit." I fill in.

"Yes." She nods. "I had been wanting to do it myself way before, but my parents didn't let me. They are dentists, muggle teeth healers..." She looks suddenly very sad.

I frown. "What is it?"

"Intense, again." She gives as a explanation.

I shrug... it seems inevitable, we are surrounded by drama, there is no way of tiptoeing around it. "Your parents?" She nods. "What happened...?" She bits her lip. "You don't have to tell me, I just..."

"I did something horrible." My eyebrows shoot up. I can't believe she did something remotely cruel without an important reason. "I erased my parents memories. I made them believe they were other people, forget they ever had a daughter and move to Australia to start a new life." I gasp.

"They... the Death Eaters were torturing and killing muggleborns and their families." She continues and I clasp her hand in support. I am in shock. She has been through more than anyone realizes... it makes me admire her even more.

"You did what you had to do to keep them safe, Hermione." I try to reassure her. "They were in danger because they are the family of a muggleborn, even more so because you are one of Harry Potter's best friends."

She is trying to contain her tears now. "I can't find them." She murmurs. "I have tried to use magical ways, but I haven't been able to find them yet. I erased them and made it so that no one could find them." She chuckles sadly, tears spilling. "Not even me." Her voice cracks.

"Oh my god." I murmur to myself. I yank her arm and wrap mine around her body trying to comfort her. Her forehead falls to my shoulder. "Hermione, could they be...?" I say low enough for her to hear.

She shakes her head lightly. "I don't think so. If they were dead, at least I would have found them."

"Then you can still find them." I try to encourage her, squeezing a little. I let her go, so I can look at her in the eye. "I'll help you."

"I don't even know which part of Australia they have ended up in." Hermione says. "I have hired a muggle private detective to try to track them down."

"Then you just have to be patient." I think. "What names did you give them?"

"Wendell and Monica Wilkins. Why?"

"I have relatives in Australia." I shrug. "From my father's side. I will write to them right away, they may be of some help." She nods absentmindedly.

"I don't know if they'll ever forgive me." She whispers and something seems to break inside of me at the sight of this woman so broken. I hold her again.

"Listen to me." I say quietly. "You will find your parents. You will restore their memories and explain carefully what happened. They may not see it at first, but it was the only way they could be safe." I think she nods a little against my shoulder and I relish a little more than I should in her soft hands against my sides.

"And you are not alone in any of this, Hermione." I say. "You have Harry, Ron, the whole Weasley family, me... We will help you, we can talk to your parents and make them understand all that was happening."

I squeeze her. "Besides... such a kind hearted woman must have come from kind hearted parents and I don't believe they will ever hold this obviously hard decision against you."

She stays locked for a few minutes, without saying anything, and I don't know what else to say. She finally seems satisfied and pulls out of the hug.

"Thank you, Fleur."

"It is nothing." I give her a little smile. "Just focus on the present for now." I glance at the pile of books on the end of the table. "Take one thing at a time."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I would want a share on Harry Potter, but for now I hold none.**

**A/N: Another chapter, this one a little longer. I try to make up for the short chapters uploading them quickly. Hope you like it.**

**Chapter - 6**

I leave Hermione's place on a brighter mood some time after, when I finally look at the clock and realize that is too late already. She seems gutted about it and I bargain with her, to light the mood, that I will let her go through my vinyl collection. She laughs and tells me that she will actually hold me to that.

Although our conversations tend to go back to intense themes, she says she really enjoys them. And I have to say that I do too and that because of these conversations, I am getting to know an amazing woman, with a strength I have never seen.

Even though I know she is that strong and she can handle her own, I am still a little worried about the tall this is all taken on her. She is way too young to be making decisions like that. Like going on a dangerous mission searching for pieces of soul of the darkest of wizards, facing his obviously more experienced sympathizers in almost a suicidal mission and erasing her parents' whole lifes to keep them safe from them and the heartache of the assured losses of the war.

After everything that has happened, I can't wrap my mind around everything that this woman has gone through... actually, is still going through. The fact that she still has it together makes me realize she is no ordinary woman at all.

Hermione doesn't like me to walk home alone so late -even though I am a witch well trained in defense and will probably be alright- so I apparate back home. Once in the apartment, I look for some parchment and write to my Aunt in Australia, but decide against sending it with my own owl, Olec, because he is not used to deliver such long distance and might take him weeks. Instead, I wait for the next morning and go to the post office where there are birds trained to deliver much quicker.

I do not see Hermione during the week, too busy finally taking her N.E.W.T.S. that I don't want to disturb her. I redeem myself with Olec by sending him out with letters for Hermione, encouraging her on her exams, wishing her good luck and extending an invitation for a proper meal once she is finished. He comes back much later with a thank you letter from Hermione and crumbs from owl treats all over his beak, hooting all over the place. I am hoping he has forgiven me for not sending him in the long distance delivery and instead, using him in short distances deliveries to a woman that gives him treats.

Every day, before coming back home, I stop by to say hi to the twins at their shop. We chat and we have a cup of tea if the store isn't that busy. When they close, I go back home, have a light dinner, go over my plans for the next vault and maybe, read a little for fun if I am not too tired. Every day, I get a little more used to this new routine.

Friday afternoon finds me coming out of Gringotts tunnels and wishing a good weekend to a particular grumpy goblin. After a few days of planning, we still haven't been able to disable all the wards in one of the vaults and we are now behind the schedule proposed by the goblins, but after hours down there, I feel that we have given it our everything and there isn't much more we can do today to open it.

As I am making my way to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, I hear someone calling my name. I turn around and soon enough, Hermione reaches me and greets me.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Her normally bushy hair is tied up high in a ponytail and she looks like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

"Great. I finished my exams this morning." She smiles.

"How did you think it went?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know. I have been going over my Ancient Runes exam and I think I translated a part wrong, but I can't do anything about it now." She shrugs.

"I am sure you will be fine, Hermione." I say encouragingly. "When will you here about your results?"

"Sometime in the next month." She shrug. "The potion I brewed for my exam has to settle for a fortnight before it is ready, so they will probably take longer to give me the results."

I frown. "I didn't think a Potions N.E.W.T. was necessary for a career in Magical Law." Hermione looks around, trying not to look guilty. "Exactly how many N.E.W.T.S did you take, Hermione?"

"Nine." She mumbles.

"Nine?!" I exclaim in disbelief. "Isn't that like all of them?" I start counting in my head if it is really all of them.

"Not exactly." She shakes her head. "I did not take the N.E.W.T.s. for Divination, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies."

"Still... wow. No wonder you were so stressed about it." I chuckle. This woman is full of surprises.

"I didn't want to limit my options... Even though it seems that I have figured out what I want to do with, we never know about the future." She shrugs.

"Hermione." I make her look at me instead of her suddenly interesting feet. "I am not chastising you. You don't have to defend yourself." I shake my head. "I am merely surprised. And I shouldn't be, because you are the brightest witch of you age and you can take on that and anything you want."

She blushes. "While I am flattered by the compliment, you may want to wait until I get my results back."

I nod. "I will... but I doubt it'll make any difference." She huffs but I see her shy away a little, so I change the subject. "And what brings you to this part of the city?"

"Well, I was looking for you actually."

My eyebrows shoot upwards. "Really?"

"Yes." She isn't feeling shy any more. "You promised a homemade dinner once I finished my exams." I did. I nod. "I won't hold you to that." She says and I frown. "In fact, I insist you let me invite you for dinner tonight as a thank you for taking care of me during the exams."

"But I didn't..."

"You did. You brought me dinner last week. And you have been owling me this whole week checking if I had gone insane yet and wishing me luck. So now I want to do something to thank you and I am inviting you for dinner tonight."

I ponder. "I accept... as long as you let me help."

"I..." She fumbles.

I put my hands in my pockets and shrug. "Take it or leave it."

She pouts annoyed. "That wasn't the plan." She says stubbornly, but I don't give in. "Okay..." She finally complies and I smile. I smile as big as I can, making it creepy, absurd and all the way infectious, until the corners of her mouth turn upward despite her efforts.

"Now that it is settled..." I loop my arm with hers and start walking. "Do you mind that we pass by the Weasleys' before going shopping for ingredients? I usually pass by after work and see how they are doing."

"We don't need to go the supermarket." She starts walking in the Weasleys' shop direction. "I went earlier today and spent hours there. The only thing I left in my fridge was a bottle of milk, it was quite embarrassing."

I chuckle. "Oh my god, I should have dropped by to see if you had enough provisions in your kitchen. If the exams had taken longer, you could have starved." I joke.

"I don't think so..." She answers. "I am on a first name basis with the owner of the Chinese place in the corner of my street. Li is good to me, I wouldn't have starved."

I am not really sure if she is joking anymore, so I give her a quizzical stare. "Hermione, you have to take better care of yourself."

"I know, Fleur." She opens the door to the shop. "From now on I will, don't worry."

"Good afternoon, ladies." The twins say at the same time from different sides of the store.

We finally pay attention to the store and we are surprised that it is quite crowded. George finishes up with a client and approaches.

"Ladies, we are sorry, but we are going to have to pass on our cup of tea, today." He turns around. "As you can see, we are quite busy."

"It seems business is going very well, guys." Hermione points out.

Fred joins us now. "It is... and it is going to get better." He winks and gives us each a leaflet with the words 'great opening' almost bouncing off the paper.

"You are opening a store in Hogsmeade?" I ask.

The twins nod in synch. "We are expanding!"

"Tonight when we close here, we have to apparate there and finish up some details..." Fred starts.

"...and tomorrow the Great Opening of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in Hogsmeade!" George finishes up giddily.

"And it all just happen to be on the first Hogsmeade visit for Hogwarts students." Fred says innocently.

"You kept it a secret." I point a finger accusingly.

"We didn't want to say anything until we knew it was really happening." George shrugs guiltily.

I chuckle. "I'm happy for you." They smile. "You have worked hard for this."

"Yes. I am happy for you too." Hermione says by my side. "This is huge."

Fred turns his head to the back of the store and apologizes before going away.

"Why don't you come by tomorrow? We would love to show you the new store, it is very different from this one."

I look at Hermione, who in turn is looking at me. "Sure." I say, still looking at her.

"We'll pay you a visit." Hermione assures him. "Now, go. You have clients to tend to."

She loops her arm with mine this time and we exit the store. Back in Diagon Alley, she withdraws her wand from her pocket and I feel the familiar pull in the pit of my stomach as I am squeeze through space and we apparate back to her apartment.

While I am still getting off my coat, she walks through the living room and pulses a button in a muggle device with a blinking red digit.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Granger. This is Charles Carmichael, private investigator. I believe I have located Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins in Perth. I will need you to contact me as soon as possible to discuss further actions. Their address is..."

The voice in the muggle device continues and although I don't understand how it really works, I have gathered enough. Hermione's muggle detective has finally found her parents. She can now restore their memories. And she seems petrified over the now quiet device.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter - 7**

"Hermione." I call at her when a few minutes have passed and she still isn't reacting, at least on the outside. I come closer to her to be able to see her face, her eyes, that right now are still facing the wall.

"Hermione." I say again, much lower because we are now inches apart. I touch her arm and she finally seems to come back to reality.

"I need... maybe is... plane..." She starts mumbling incoherently and I have to grab both her arms and pull to lock my eyes with hers. Her brown eyes are wild with worry and nervousness.

"Breathe, Hermione." She does. "One step a time."

"I have to get to Australia right away." She says and then she frowns. "I..." She worries her lip.

"What is it?" I shake her a little.

"I have to go the airport. I have to get a plane ticket for Australia." She tries to escape my arms and I stop her a few more seconds.

"No. The muggle way will take too long." I shake my head. There must be a better way... "Send Harry and Ron a Patronus. We are going to use their fireplace. I think I remember them saying that they have upgraded their Floo connection to the international network." She looks confused.

"We?" She asks.

"You are one of the strongest persons I have ever known, but nobody should go through something like this alone and I am certainly not going to let you." She listens very still. "I am not going to impose in your family moments, but I would like to be around in case you need someone. So we..." I point out. "...are going to Australia."

I look at her with a resolute stare, so she knows that there is no way I can change my mind, but she nods slowly and looks a little relieved.

"So, remember I told you I have family in Australia? We can't apparate to another continent, it is too far, but their fireplace is connected to the Floo network." She starts nodding along. "Their place is in Albany, which isn't exactly near Perth, but we should manage from there."

She takes my hands and squeezes them delicately. "Thank you, Fleur." She says.

"You are welcome." I simply say. "Now, take a deep breath to calm you down and send them the Patronus while we pack. I still can't conjure a corporeal one." I look at my watch. "We don't have to hurry, it is the middle of the night in Perth."

She waves her wand and a bright silver otter comes from its end. Before the otter can go away, Hermione records the message. "Harry, Ron, we need to use your international Floo network later tonight, is that okay?" The otter flies away through the window.

"I need to apparate back to my place and grab a few things. Are you okay here?"

"Yes, don't worry."

I don't doubt it, but she looks so tired already. I approach and kiss her forehead quickly. "It's going to be okay." She blushes a little at the gesture, but only sighs and nods. "I will be right back." I walk away and apparate back to my apartment.

All in all, it takes me about half an hour to shower, change and gather a few things that might be useful in our trip. I apparate back to Hermione's and she is pushing old copies of the Daily Prophet into her purse.

"I thought they might be helpful while explaining to my parents." She shrugs. "And the purse has an undetectable extension charm, so it is not like my space is limited."

"That is a very useful charm." I point. "And a difficult one."

She shakes her head. "Not difficult. It just requires patience."

"Then I am not patient enough."

She chuckles. "Put your bag in here too, that way you don't have to carry it. It is much bigger than this purse." I do, because the long bag magically fits inside a little purse and we can 'accio' anything we might need out.

A ball of silver smoke comes through the window and stops right in front of Hermione. It transforms into a silver stag and Harry's voice is clear.

"Of course, Hermione. We just got home from training. Is everything alright? Can we do anything? Come by whenever."

I close the purse and Hermione asks me. "What do you say we go say hi to Li and apparate to their house?" I chuckle.

"So I guess there is no chance of you resting a little before traveling across the world."

"I am too wired, Fleur, but you should totally make yourself comfortable here and rest for a while. You have been working all day, after all."

I shrug. "Today consisted mostly on desk work. We couldn't get by the wards of the vault. Let's go." She looks at me, biting her lip, but when she sees my resolution, she just accept it.

We apparate soon enough to Grimmauld Place with Chinese take-out.

"I can't believe you actually are in a first name basis with the owner of the Chinese place." She shrugs. "I thought you were just kidding and chose an easy Chinese name."

"I have been too busy to cook." She tries to defend herself.

"Hello." Harry appears in the stairs, his hair slightly wet and all messed up from toweling it dry.

"Hi. We brought dinner." Hermione waves the bag.

"Great!" The red head exclaims, his head popping out from the third floor flight of stairs. "I'm starving."

We end up in the kitchen and Harry doesn't waste any time, looking worried.

"What's going on, Hermione?" He asks.

"Remember that muggle private investigator I hired?" He nods. "He found them. I need to go to Australia."

"Blimey." Harry pats his hair and straightens his baggy jumper, as if trying to decide if it is good enough for the trip.

"Now?" Ron asks when he swallows his food. He winces, clearly tired, but grabs his wand and moves his chair back to stand up.

"I have to do it as soon as possible. But, guys..." She says, putting down Ron's wand back on the table. "You don't have to come with me."

"Hermione, I don't think..." Harry starts.

"I'm going with her, Harry." I interrupt him. He looks surprised from me to Hermione. She nods and the boy looks back at me. He nods his approval. For his part, Ron gives a suspicious look while shoving noodles to his mouth. "Which might work for the best because, I am sorry to say, you don't look at the top of your game."

He chuckles and moves his glasses to rub his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"How is the Auror training going?" Hermione asks.

"Fine, I guess." He shrugs. "We have been practicing our reflexes. The first couple of times you go through the simulator it's cool, but then it's just exhausting. There are persecutions and hostages and screams..."

Ron swallows and pushes back his carton of Chinese food. If he isn't hungry anymore, he must be really tired. "That is not the worst, though. Aurors are required to have superior skills on Occlumency. That is the absolute worst. To have someone looking inside your brain, your memories and you have to push it out..." He squirms. "I'm sorry man for giving you a bad time when you had to go through it our fifth year at Hogwarts." Harry shrugs.

I am not sure why Harry had to learn Occlumency when he was fifteen, but I guess it all had to do with Voldemort.

I change the subject. "You are free this weekend though, aren't you?"

"If they don't call us in..." Ron says, putting his arm on the table and resting his head on his hand.

"I don't think we will be called in on our first week." Harry says, but he isn't very sure. "I hope not. I have a date with Ginny tomorrow." He smiles. "Hogwarts' students have their first visit to Hogsmeade and I am supposed to meet her there."

"So that is going well, I gather." I wasn't sure if they still were seeing each other or if it was something that had ended much like Hermione and Ron's relationship.

"Yeah, we are working on it." He seems so happy after all he has been through. It gives me hope.

He shakes his head, as if he was getting rid of this particular subject that makes him smile like a fool. "So, how have your week been? Hermione, you took your N.E.W.T.S., right?"

Hermione nods and is about to answer when a loud snort makes us look to Ron, sprawled over the table soundly asleep.

She chuckles and keeps it short. "Yes. I am not sure how they went, but they are done now and I won't know anything until sometime next month." She finishes.

"I'm sure you did good." Harry reassures her and a yawn escapes his mouth right afterwards.

"You are tired. Why don't you go to bed and Fleur and I will levitate Ron to his room, clean up down here and be on our way?"

He ponders briefly and Ron starts snoring. "I am going to take you up on that." He stands up and walks to the other side of the table. He hugs Hermione. "Good luck, Hermione." He kisses her forehead.

Then she walks to me and I stand up to meet him. He hugs me much like he did with her and whispers in my ear. "Take care of her too, will you?"

He withdraws from the hug and I nod almost imperceptibly. "Goodnight, ladies."

Harry tugs Ron's ear and the red headed jumps. "What...?"

"Say goodnight and go to bed." Harry tells him before walking out.

"Sorry." Ron apologizes when he sees us. He stands up leaning on the table, his eyes barely open. "I really hope everything works out.".

"Thank you, Ronald."

"Take care, okay?" He tries to open his eyes and he gives us a sleepy smile. Hermione laughs at him. "Goodnight." He walks out dragging his feet, but at least we don't have to levitate him and put him to bed.

We clean up in the kitchen. The dinner didn't cause too much of a mess, so it is finished fairly quick. I look at my watch. "Do you want some tea?"

"Sure." Hermione answers.

I look around, put a full teapot on the stove and find some cups. The water boils soon enough, I prepare two cups and sit down.

"Thanks." Hermione takes her cup and rests her hands around it. "It is still too early."

"Yes, a little." I sit down in front of her. "So tell me about your exams." She looks at me curiously. "You didn't go into much detail. How did they go?"

"You really want to know how my exams went?"

"Of course, Hermione. You were concerned about them." I explain. She is looking at me very weird. "You have been studying very hard for them. I want to know how they went. Which did you find the hardest, the easiest..."

Hermione keeps looking at me quiet intensely and I am not sure what is going on in her mind, but that look makes a little something deep inside of me come alive.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**A/N: In the last chapter I spelled Floo network like Flu. Stupid, stupid mistake, I could spell correctly the name of a weird magical creature and I go and spell wrong Floo...**

**Anyway, here's a new chapter I hope you enjoy and I hope there's no more errors in it.**

**Chapter - 8**

We spend a few hours talking. She tells me all about her exams and I find myself remembering things about my own experience.

"I feel like I had something to prove in my Defense Against Dark Arts exam." She recognizes.

"What? Why?" I ask.

"It was the lowest mark I got on my O.W.L.s." She says and she crosses her arms over her chest. She even pouts at one point.

She has a fame for being on top of the class, I can't believe that she did less than satisfactory in her exams, much more in Defense Against Dark Arts -seriously, this woman leaded the war-. "What did you get, then?"

"An Exceeds Expectations." She spits like it's shameful.

I chuckle and she looks a little wary. "It's not that bad, but still what kind of potions were they brewing before your exam that the fumes affected them that much? You have been outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts since your first year at Hogwarts!" She chuckles and that look disappears.

"I think the easiest one for me was actually History of Magic." She says. I can't believe it and my face must show it. "Really. I just love to read and the subject is like an old tale. Also, just by reading I retain most of the material. You don't have to think that much in History, just write down the part of the tale they ask." She shrugs. "My only problem was the limit in the length of the parchment."

I chuckle. "History of Magic was the most difficult for me. What the wizards did, when, how it all reflected on the muggle's World Wars... Don't get me wrong, I did find it interesting, but sometimes all that information just mixed all up in my head." I shake it, making my point. "At the end I pulled it off, so all went well."

"My easiest exam was Care of Magical Creatures." She gives me an impressed look and I bite my lip before continuing. "On my year, they decided to ask about Veela customs." She starts laughing. I sip my tea hiding my smirk at making her laugh. "Piece of cake."

"That isn't fair. Of course you aced it." She sighs when her laugh subsides. "This is fun. I haven't have a conversation like this in years."

"How so?"

"This is the boring stuff." She shrugs. "Ronald doesn't give a damn about it. Harry prefers not to hear it. My parents didn't understand these magical exams. And so on..." She shrugs.

"You can talk to me about anything you want and I will do my best to keep a conversation." I simply say. "But if it is about Quidditch I might be seriously lost." She laughs. I look at my watch and finally it is late enough here not to arrive there at the crack of dawn.

Hermione follows my line of thought and takes a deep breath. She nods and smiles. I stand up.

"I think it'll be best for me to go first." She nods. "Give me a couple of minutes to step out of the fireplace in the other end and I will stand there to wait for you." I remind her of the name of the house, grab a fist full of Floo powder and step into the fireplace. I enunciate clearly, aware of the slight accent still in my English and the flames swallow me.

It takes longer than travelling through the national network, so I have to endure the uncomfortable pressure and keep my elbows tucked in for a longer time. Finally, I see a familiar living room and I step outside.

"Hello?" I exclaim, although they already have heard me arrive. "Tante?"

Soon enough she is coming into the living room. "Fleur?" She smiles happily and I gesture for her to wait. I turn around and through the flames in the fireplace I see Hermione's not-that-bushy-anymore hair.

I stick my hand into the flames and help her pull out from the flames. I lock eyes with her to make sure she is fine and then turn back to my tante, walking into her open arms.

"Oh my dear, it has been too long." She avoids mentioning that the last time she saw me was at my wedding. She kisses my hair and finally lets me go. She gives me an unsubtle onceover. "You look well." I shrug. She finishes with me for now and turns to Hermione.

"Tante, this is my friend Hermione Granger." I turn to her. "Hermione, this is my aunt, Elise Robinson."

She shakes my tante's hand. "It is nice to meet you, Mrs. Robinson."

"Oh, please, call me Elise." Hermione nods. "So what are you girls doing here so soon? We didn't expect you for a few days. We send our letter just yesterday."

"You found the Wilkins too? We got their address from a private investigator." I am surprised.

"Yes. We didn't know where to start looking, they could be anywhere in the country. Your uncle talked to his brother who lives in Perth and turns out muggles have this thing called White Pages, and he just checked there and, as you would say, voilà!"

My tante makes a gesture with her hand and we are following her to the kitchen where she is preparing breakfast. "Where is Oncle?" She has mentioned him, but she hasn't said where he is.

"He is getting ready for work. He'll be down in a minute." She says. "Oh, she is going to be so glad to see you." She waves her wand and the pots move of their own accord. "Do you want some breakfast?" She looks at us. "Some coffee maybe?"

I look at Hermione, who is biting her lip, and prompt her with a little push in her side. "A coffee would be great." She says.

"Yes, two coffees, tante." I join.

"Do you need any help, Elise?" She asks.

The woman shakes her head. "Don't worry. Just a little magic more and it'll be ready." Sure enough, two cups of coffee levitate in our direction and we thank her. "So who are Wendell and Monika Wilkins? Why are you searching for them, honey?" She looks at me.

I look at Hermione and she shrugs, leaving it up to me. "They are her parents." I say. My tante looks puzzled. "They came to live to Australia to hopefully be safe from the war back home."

"I guess the parents of the Golden Trio would have been targeted during the war. More so when you disappeared on your secret quest. Good thinking." Elise ponders. Hermione looks kind of surprised. "News also travel down here." She just says.

A big tall man finally comes into the kitchen. "Oh my God. Fleur?!" He exclaims. I can't help but laugh and go into his open arms. "How is my favorite niece?"

I chuckle. "I'm fine, Oncle. How are you doing?"

"Same old, same old." He steps back. "And who is this fine lady?"

"Hermione Granger, sir." She greets him smiling. His energy is contagious.

"Ethan Robinson. It's a pleasure to meet you." He takes her hand and instead of shaking, he kisses its back. Hermione laughs. He walks to his wife, kisses her cheek and grabs a cup of coffee. "So, girls, what are you going to do? Are you going to find those Wilkins?"

"Yeah, that was the plan."

"Will you need a place to stay? How long will you stay anyway?" Elise asks.

I look at Hermione and I can see she doesn't have a clue. "We don't know yet."

"I don't think I need to say this, but you can stay here and as long as you want. We've got room." She says. "And even if you don't need a place to stay, I hope you can spend some time with us. We would love to have you."

Oncle checks his watch and groans. Elise checks the watch too. "Girls, we have to go to work. We can apparate you to Perth first." I nod.

A few minutes later, I take my Tante's hand and Hermione my Oncle's arm and we are squeezed into nothingness. We apparate in the middle of a park and they lead us to the street.

"Around the corner there is a fantastic restaurant." Oncle comments. "We haven't actually ever been to that particular street, but my brother says that it is only two blocks from here."

I nod. "Thank you for everything. Now, you apparate to work. We'll find our way."

We promise to make some time and spend it with them and we say goodbye. Oncle kisses me and then, hugs Hermione like she's family. Elise shakes her hand and squeezes her arm, and then hugs me. With a pop, they apparate away.

"They are very nice people." She comments as we start walking. "So... your aunt is... your father's sister?" I nod. "And what is it they do? They had to go to work very early on a Saturday..."

"They study and take care of magical creatures around Australia and New Zealand." I explain. "They say these lands offer an incredible variety of creatures and they are fascinated. Oncle is originally from here and he has always liked animals, but until he was eleven, being from a muggle family, he didn't have a clue magical creatures even existed. Tante moved from France. They met chasing some weird creature -that turned out wasn't magical at all- and they fell in love." She smiles at the nice story, but her reality makes that the smile doesn't stick.

A couple of blocks further, sure enough is the street where their house is supposed to be. Hermione sighs and grabs my hand. I squeeze and keep walking, reading the numbers on the doors. We finally stop in front of the house and I turn to her.

"What I did was wrong." She comments. I hold her hand.

"It was not right, but it wasn't wrong." I correct her. "Remember why you did it. You were afraid they would be killed by the Death Eaters. Not only that..." I wonder if this is the best thing to say, but I squeeze her hand and go on. "They would have been tortured to death for information, like you almost were, and without reason, because they did not know about your plan." Her eyes flash back to those days when she suffered Bellatrix's torture and I wince at the memory too, she was so closed to death...

"It might not have been right, but you had a pretty powerful reason." She nods and I see her resolution come back. "Are you ready?"

"No. But I have to do it." She sighs.

"Do you want me to stay here?" I try to get my hand back, but she squeezes.

"No... can you go in with me?" She looks at me imploringly and I nod.

I wait for a minute until she takes the first step and then follow, our hands still joined. In front of the door, she takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell. She looks at me for the nervous seconds we stand waiting by the door and jumps surprised when it finally opens.

"Good morning." Monica Wilkins, Patricia Granger really, stands there. Her hair is darker than her daughter, but her features are pretty similar otherwise. "How can I help you?" She looks from me to Hermione and she doesn't recognize her own daughter.

Hermione is totally lost for words. "Good morning, Mrs. Wilkins. My name is Fleur Weasley. You don't really know me, but I need to talk to you and Mr. Wilkins. It is really important." She furrows her brow, analyzing the situation.

"Wendell, darling." She shouts inside. "Could you come for a minute?"

"It is kind of sensitive too. If we could do this inside... I promise you we won't take much of your time." She stares at us, trying to understand what are we doing in her porch and why we want to go inside her house with the short information we have given her.

She seems to find us harmless, because she opens the door the whole way and grants us access. She guides us to the living room and we sit in the couch. She takes one of the armchairs.

"So what is this about?" She starts asking, but Mr. Wilkins comes in, his reading glasses in one hand and a book in the other.

"What do you want, honey? Oh..." He stops when he sees us.

"They want to talk to us, they say it's important." She says, without stop looking at us.

"Oh." He says as he sits in the other armchair. "You look really familiar. You kind of resemble my wife..." He muses. "What do you want to talk about?" He asks curiously.

"I'm sorry." Hermione says as she takes out her wand and cast the spell.

A white smoke flows out of the end and goes through their mouths. Their stares are blank until the smoke stops floating. Then, Thomas Granger's hands go to his head and start rubbing his temples and Patricia Granger shakes her head trying to make everything fall into place.

"Mom? Dad?" Hermione asks, her voice shaking.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello. I'm sorry for the delay, I had to go away for a few days to a little village with poor internet connection.**

**Chapter - 9**

Her words hang in the air. Mr. and Mrs. Granger are still trying to recover from having all their memories finally put back. Millions of images, sounds and sensations pushed back into their brains, finding their habitual places.

She looks nervous at me and worries her lip. "They may need a few minutes..." Hermione nods.

"Mom? Dad?" She tries again after a while. "Do you need anything?"

"Can you get daddy some aspirin, sweetheart?" Mr. Granger answers.

"Of course." She says, but I stop her with a hand on her leg and walk out of the room. I have read somewhere that aspirin is a kind of muggle pill to alleviate headache, but I don't know where I could find it in this house. I find the kitchen easily and get a big glass of water. I open some cabinets but I only find food. "Accio aspirin." I say. A bottle of pills flies down into the kitchen from somewhere upstairs.

I go back quickly and give everything to Hermione. She takes a pill from the bottle and crouches by her father's side. She puts the aspirin in his hand and he puts it in his mouth, then she helps her father with the glass of water.

"Mom?" She asks her. The woman gesture for another aspirin for her and she helps her too. When she is done, she sits back in the couch and waits for her parents eyes to settle on her.

"What happened, Hermione?" Her mother asks first. Her father looks at his wife and then, interested, at his daughter. "You went upstairs five minutes ago to get something, but I feel like I haven't seen you in a year." She shakes her head, not sure how she can feel that way.

"You haven't seen me in over a year." She starts. "I took all your memories away... with magic, obviously. I gave you a new identity and sent you away, to build a new life here in Australia. Everything that you remember from this year, it isn't a dream."

"Why?" Mr. Granger's eyebrows are furrowed.

She looks down at her hands. "I wasn't totally honest with you about the situation in the Wizarding world..."

"Honey, you have always talked to us. You have always tried to explain magical things to us. You told us about the troll in the castle, the big snake, the Dementors, the students forced to steal eggs from dragons..." Hermione gives me a side glance. "..., when you and your friends nearly destroyed the whole Ministry of Magic, the murder of your Headmaster, the Dark Lord... what could possibly be worst that you felt you had to hide it from us?"

"The Dark Lord rising again, Mom. His belief that only pure blood wizards should have magic." She swallows. "His followers were slaughtering muggleborns and their families..." She shakes her head. "And I have explained more or less the connection he had with Harry. I am one of his best friends. You would have been more of a target for his followers and I was so scared they got to you." She finishes in a whisper.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger seem taken aback from her explanation and a little more calm. "Why couldn't you just explain that to us?" Mr. Granger asks.

"Dad, would you have come willingly to Australia, out of harm's way, and left your whole life back in England? Would you have let me go to do what I had to do if I had told you that?" She challenges him, trying to remain calm herself.

Mr. Granger is about to answer, again agitated, but Mrs. Granger calls his attention by putting her hand on his knee. "We would have not, darling."

He bites his lip while he thinks. "Well, we could have protected ourselves in our own home..." He tries again-

"Mr. Granger." I finally say. "No offense, but what could you possibly have done against wizards? Affront them with muggle guns? They can easily transfigure them into... bananas or something." They look bewildered, but at least they are paying attention. "Many wizards, good wizards lost their lives in this war against him, so how could you defend yourselves against them without magic?"

Mr. Granger looks down, the wheels in his brain still spinning, but I can see he has accepted they couldn't have done anything. Mrs. Granger looks at me curiously. "I am Hermione's friend, Fleur Weasley, by the way. It is nice to meet you." I introduce myself.

Mrs. Granger smiles. "She told me about you. I remember." Now I am curious. "And a year ago... I guess... we went out shopping for a dress she could wear to your wedding." I smile, sadness seeping through. Over a year ago, I got married to the man I loved. Fate took him away long before our first anniversary.

Hermione's hand comes close and squeezes mine, offering support. The gesture doesn't go unnoticed by her mother. She clears her throat. "As she said... many good wizards..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She says and looks down guiltily.

"It's okay." I say.

Mr. Granger seems unfazed though, still in deep thought. "We've been here... over a year?" We nod. "And there have been a war? That you have taken a part in?" He massages his forehead, trying to make sense. "Hermione, what has been going on? Why have you come back now to return our memories?" He bites his lip and then, says urgently. "I need to know."

"It was safe now to put your memories back. He is gone, for good this time." She says. "And you are right, Dad, you need to know. I should tell you everything." She closes her eyes and I imagine her visualizing everything that has happened in the last year and a half. "For now I will give you a short version."

I raise my eyebrows, pretty curious if she is going to tell them about what they did in that secret quest too. She glances at me and I accommodate myself into the couch, ready to hear her whole story. She chuckles and starts, at the very beginning.

"When I erased your memories, I made sure everything was taken care of and went to live with the Weasley's until the wedding. Our Headmaster, before his death, and Harry had been lead to believe that Voldemort had performed a horrible kind of dark magic." She looks at me. "This part we haven't told anybody, because as horrible as it was, we fear if it is passed on, someday someone will want to repeat it too." She warns me.

I consider if I should leave now. "I... I won't tell anybody." She smiles and nods approvingly. I am glad she doesn't mind sharing this with me too.

She faces her parents, who are looking at us full of curiosity. "He found a way to be kept alive. By doing horrendous deeds, he ripped part of his soul and put it into some object. As long as this thing still existed, so did he. They say it is painful enough to do it once, but he did this seven times." I gasp. "In order to destroy him forever, we had to destroy the pieces of his soul. We already had destroyed two, a diary and a ring."

"During the wedding..." She continues. "The Ministry of Magic was taken over by his allies and the protection around it went down. We intended to start our search a couple of days after anyways, but with the attack then, we escaped and started that same night."

"First, we went after a locket that belonged to his mother. We tracked it down back to Harry's godfather's house, only to find that it had been stolen by Mundungus and sold to our old professor, Dolores Umbridge. We had to sneak into the Ministry disguised as ministry workers and take it from her."

"As we were escaping, we were spotted and we had to find a new place to hide. We ended up camping, in this forest we went to when I was a kid." She tells her parents, pointing something familiar for them. "We kept moving and we still had no idea how to get rid of this locket or where to find the rest."

"The dark piece of soul inside it had a depressing effect to the wearer, feeding on ones deepest fears, so we would take turns to wear it and not let it out of our sight. Ron was injured and it took a greater toll on him." She glances at me. "That was when he couldn't stand it anymore and bolted."

"He spent Christmas with us." I nod. "He regretted leaving you, but once he did, he didn't know how to make it back to you. I gave him a really hard time about it, because I didn't know what you were doing or why he had run off." I explain. Hermione looks rather amused by it. Her parents look blank, still hanging by every word.

"Meanwhile..." She continues. "We went back to Harry's parents house. Voldemort had his snake there, waiting for us. He nearly got us then." She shakes her head. "We went back to living in the woods. One night, we received help from our old teacher Snape. He left us the sword of Gryffindor to destroy the piece of soul. This sword only will present itself to a true Gryffindor, so Harry had to leave our camp and dive in an iced pond to show his bravery and retrieve it. That's how Ron found us again. He helped Harry take the sword and they destroyed the locket with it."

"We kept looking for more pieces without success." She continues. "We were found by snatchers then and taken to the Malfoy Manor." She swallows hard and now I'm the one squeezing her hand. "They tried to get information from us before giving Harry to the Dark Lord himself. We escaped before he arrived and we hid at Fleur's house while recovering and planning our next move." Her parents look grim. Mrs. Granger is on the verge of tears and Mr. Granger is examining every inch of her daughter. From the outside, he will only be able to see how her daughter has matured, her features have hardened.

"You were tortured?" He asks, his voice broken and low.

Hermione winces. "I'm fine now." She simply says. Her mother is now brushing her cheeks, getting rid of the tears. "There is no use in telling that part." She tries to convey to her parents that she really doesn't want to relive that. She swallows and keeps going on. "From everything, we gathered that he kept another piece of his soul in a Gringotts vault, so we made a plan to get into it. Once we were back on our feet, we started planning that next move."

She looks at me in the eye. "We almost pulled it off perfectly." I start laughing.

"I have heard a lot about that part." I intervene in her story, trying to share some light. "They were made as soon as they stepped into the bank, but they enchanted their way to the vault itself. They managed to retrieve what I know now was a piece of his soul and had to escape by riding a dragon the goblins used to protect the vaults."

Mrs. Granger's jaw is hanging wide open and Mr. Granger's eyes are about to pop out. Hermione chuckles. "It would have been an incredible experience if I hadn't been so focused on thinking about anything but the flight." Her parents smile a little. At least they can relate to her fear of flying, whether it's on an airplane or a dragon.

"After that, we went back to Hogwarts." She continues. "The last of the pieces could be found there. But once there, the war started. While we were searching and destroying these pieces, everyone was fighting." She takes a deep breath, maybe getting ready for a complicated part. "Harry discovered he himself had a piece of his soul."

Her parents reaction and mine are quite the same. "Harry sacrificed himself, but fortunately it just killed the piece of Voldemort's soul and not really him." She spits quickly, not leaving her parents to think the worst. "Then, it was just a battle between two of the greatest wizards... and Harry won."

She gives them a sad smile. "He was gone, with no way of coming back. Most of his allies arrested. And I have been looking for you ever since." She looks down. "I am sorry to say it took more than expected. A few months. It seems I erased every bit of you that could be magically connected to me and the people you were before."

"Honey." Her dad stands up and so does she. "Come here." He opens up his arms and then close around Hermione's tiny form. He kisses her forehead.

"Will you be able to forgive me?" Hermione looks at her father first, then at her mother. Mrs. Granger stands up and goes to hug her daughter too. I ponder apparating silently away.

"Of course." Mr. Granger lets her go and Mrs. Granger takes over. "We love you."

"Just give us some time to process everything." Mrs. Granger adds.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter - 10**

We stay a little longer. Her parents keep asking for details about everything that happened and what is going on right now.

"I'm so proud of you." Mr. Granger says when Hermione explains what she intends to do once she gets the results of her N.E.W.T.s. "I'm just a little bummed that you chose a completely magical career."

Hermione bites her lip. "Actually, Dad... I was thinking about going to law school." Her father looks radiant. "It will be a long shot, because first I have to take the muggle exams and it has been years since I have properly studied those subjects. But a muggle law career could be very beneficial for the work I intend to do." She muses. "I am a witch and I can't change my connection to the magical world, but I don't intend to completely separate myself from the muggle society I was brought up in." Mr. Granger smiles and his wife looks completely delighted.

Mr. Granger scratches his chin. "And what are we supposed to do now? Should we go back to England?" He looks at his wife, then at her daughter.

I see it puzzles Hermione. She didn't consider her parents would want to keep living this made-up life, that they would be also happy here. "I guess you can stay here, as the Wilkins, if you prefer it?"

"I don't know, sweetheart." Mr. Granger shrugs. "We haven't made up our minds or anything. But our lifes here were actually quite good and now that we don't ignore we have a daughter..."

"Thomas, sweetheart, everything and everyone we have ever known are back in England." Mrs. Granger says and he looks a little surprised that they don't quickly agree. "We have to discuss this..." She looks at her daughter for help.

Hermione worries her lip. "I... I don't know what to tell you." She shrugs. "I sincerely didn't expect you would want to keep living as the Wilkins, but... I understand it. Now that you have all your memories back, you can choose. I will be here whatever you decide, but ultimately it is your decision to make."

Not long after, we are leaving them to their discussion and to try and process all they have learned today. They have much thinking to do and this long day is finally taken a toll in Hermione... and me. We assure them we will be fine here, that we have a place to stay, and we promise to meet the next day again and see if they have already figured something up.

We say our goodbyes and walk through the streets of the neighborhood in silence. It is a very nice neighborhood, I think. I imagine a kangaroo jumping through the streets and the house's gardens and I shake myself laughing at how stereotypical that is of me. I should know better after all of what I have heard about my own country. I look back at my friend and see she is deep in thought. I worry about what it is going on in that brain of hers...

"A penny for your thoughts." She looks at me and smiles. "That didn't go so bad, did it?"

"No, it went really good." She sighs. "I thought it would take longer for my father to understand where I was coming from, the reasoning behind what I did." I nod. "Thank you, Fleur. You helped a lot."

"You are welcome, but I didn't do much. It was all you." I smile. "I basically was feeding my curiosity. Now I know what the three of you did on your own." She chuckles.

"But really, I appreciate a lot you helping me. What you said... And just you being there... you made this easier for me."

"That was what I was aiming for." I smile. "Stop it, Hermione. That is what friends are for. We help each other."

"You have been doing a lot of helping me lately..."

"It is helping me too, you know?" I confess. "More than I had anticipated." I murmur. I thought been near the one chosen by my veela would make things harder for myself, but that part is behaving pretty well so far and I am just enjoying this newfound friendship with her.

She looks at me, trying to make out the last part. "Do you want to sightsee Perth or would you prefer going back to my Tante's house and catch on some sleep?"

She ponders. "I'm still a little nervous, but I don't think I can keep my eyes open for long."

I chuckle. "I was hoping you said that." I take her hand and look around, making sure that we are out sight. "Shall we?"

She holds tight. "Let's go."

We apparate in the kitchen where this morning, I guess, we had coffee. "Hello?" I say to the empty room, loud enough for my voice to carry to the other rooms. When nobody answers me I assume my Tante and Oncle are still out and shrug.

"Why are you nervous? Worried that they will decide to live here?" She worries her lip and nods. "I understand it would be preferable for them to go back to their lifes in Britain, the ones where you have a part in, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if they choose to stay here." She shrugs. "Hermione, they love you. It doesn't matter what life they choose. And you are a witch. It wouldn't be ideal, but you've got the means to come to the opposite side of the world in just a half an hour."

She nods. "It's not just that. Our relationship is considerably strained after everything that happened. They may have forgiven me, but they have not forgotten and the distance may make difficult to repair the relationship."

"It will take time and work on both sides to repair your relationship, just as it will if they choose to go back to England."

She nods, seeming convinced, and a yawn escapes her mouth. "Come on. Let's take a nap." I find some parchment and leave my Tante a note saying that we have taken them up on their offer for a place to stay. I am hopeful that we wake up soon enough to spend some time with them.

I enter one of the rooms and she follows me. "This is the room I used to share with my sister whenever we came visiting. It has been a while, but it is exactly as I remember." The twin beds rest against the wall opposite to the door, the sky blue walls having a calming effect. Yes, exactly as I remember.

She examines the room as she enters and stands awkwardly near the door. I look at her expectantly as I go back to the door. "Which one are you sleeping on?" She points at the beds.

"I actually thought of giving you some time and sleeping in my cousin's old bedroom..."

She frowns. "But this is your room."

"Okay. Do you mind I sleep in here too?" I ask.

"I don't mind... Do you?" She bites her lip.

"Well, that depends..." I see her waiting expectantly. "Do you snore?"

"I don't know." She says confused. "I don't think so... Nobody has told me so..." She gets flustered and moves back to the door. "I will just sleep in your cousin's room then..."

"No, Hermione." I wave my hand and the door closes gently. "I was just kidding." I smile. She looks confused. "Don't go to sleep to my cousin's room. Before he moved out he had a couple snakes in a terrarium. He took them with him, but it creeps me out that some egg was left behind and a snake is hiding under the bed now." A shiver runs through my spine just thinking about it.

"And you were going to sleep there?" She asks bewildered.

I shrug. "Our friendship is rather recent and I came along in your fairly emotional trip and... I don't know, I thought maybe I should give you some space to mull everything over?"

She worries her lip while I am most definitely rambling. "I don't need space, Fleur. Our friendship might be recent, but I feel entirely comfortable around you." She blushes and I feel the veela inside of me swoon. "I am perfectly fine mulling it over with you in the room. I may also use your input." She straightens. "Pick a bed, Fleur. The next thinking I am going to do is in dreams."

I chuckle, walk to my usual bed and sit. She shrugs, leaves the bag on the other bed and 'accio' some clothes of it. She goes off to the bathroom adjoining the bedroom and shuts the door. I use the time to change myself into more comfortable clothes and go into the bathroom once Hermione returns.

When I go back to the bed, Hermione is a few meters away, lying on her stomach, fast asleep. I get into my bed and let sleep come to me.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter - 11**

I wake up some time later, my body fully relaxed. I enjoy the feeling of the sheets and the comfortable bed I am lying in without opening my eyes, until I hear a low whimper coming from the bed in my left. I open my eyes in surprise and look for the source of the whimper. Hermione is still in the other bed, asleep as far as I can tell, her eyes scrunched shut.

"Hermione?" I call her, but she doesn't seem to hear. I stand up and kneel just beside her bed. I brush her soft hair away from her face and caress her cheek, getting rid of the wetness under her eyes. "Hermione." I call her again, shaking her lightly. "Hermione, darling, you are having a bad dream... wake up."

She seems to hear me this time and she opens her eyes in surprise. I stare at her brown orbs while they take in everything around us and her brain plays catch up. "Hey. It was just a bad dream." I say, still caressing her cheek with my hand. Her hand lands over mine and she closes her eyes briefly, relaxing her features.

"Sorry." She says, somehow embarrassed. "Did I wake you?"

"No, I don't think so... I was waking up by myself already." I shake my head. "Are you alright?"

She nods. "Yes. Just a bad dream..."

"Do you want to talk about it?" As soon as I say it, her face changes, it tenses again. She moves her body and gasps, a flash of pain going through her. "Are you okay?"

She sits down and her hands go to her left calf. "Just a cramp." Without thinking, I stand and sit in the bed, take her foot and bend it so the calf is properly stretched, then start rubbing. She sighs when the sudden pain subsides.

"You are very tense. Maybe a hot bath will help you relax?" I suggest.

"Maybe." She says, nodding. I let her calf go and she puts her feet on the floor.

I stand before she does and lean in to leave a kiss in her forehead, more like resting momentarily my lips there. "Whatever it was, now it just was a bad dream." I withdraw and caress her cheek again. She nods. "Why don't you go in and relax and I'll go down to find us something to eat? We had Chinese hours ago, I am kind of hungry, aren't you?" I say nonchalantly. She nods again. "Okay." I straighten myself. "You will find some towels under the sink. Any preference on the food?"

"No..." She shrugs. "Thank you, Fleur."

"You are welcome. See you in a bit."

I walk downstairs. In England, the morning will have just begun and here the last rays of light are filtering through the windows before hiding and the night comes in. It also happens that in England, I would be wearing three layers of clothes, much like an onion, and yet in Australia it's enough with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The magic of this Earth.

"Hey, sleepyhead." Tante is in the kitchen. "How was your day?"

I rest my elbows on the isle and my head in my hand. "Eventful." She looks at me expectantly. "Hermione's parents were hiding here, but... they didn't have a clue they were." I shrug. "Everything will be fine, though. I hope... Once it was done, jet-lag caught up with us and we took a nap." I take in everything that she is doing. "Now I'm hungry."

"I thought so. I am making some dinner. Does Hermione like everything...?" She gestures to the ingredients lying on the kitchen isle.

"I think so, yeah. Can I help?"

"Yes, sure. Why don't you start putting together a salad?"

"So how was your day, Tante?" I say as I start waving my wand, levitating the lettuce and tomatoes to the sink and washing them, putting them back on the table and making a knife cut them up.

"We were called early this morning to work. There was a fight between two species at the natural reserve and they needed all hands on deck to heal the injuries and reestablish the order." She points with her wand to the salt and it seasons the salad. "We came back not long ago. Your Oncle is having now his turn to shower." I nod.

"So tell me, dear. How are you doing?" I look at her and see the seriousness of her question.

"I... I am trying to keep going." I shrug. "I still miss William every day, so much it hurts, but I have to keep going, keep living."

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through something like this. You are so young." She squeezes my hand. "Will you be able to be happy again? To love again?"

"But it still hurts... and I will never forget him..." I shrug. "Maybe... I hope so, Tante."

"He was not your mate, was he?" I shake my head. "Do you think when you find him you will be happy again?" I bite my lip. "Fleur... have you find him already?"

I nod. "I have."

"Oh, dear." She stops and leans on the counter by my side. "Everything is more complicated than you thought, isn't it?" When I was a kid, I used to come up with these stories that I would find my mate, everything will fall into place and live happily ever after just like my parents and grandparents did. I didn't take many things into account, though.

I nod. "I loved him, Tante, I still love William very much."

"Of course, dear. I'm sorry." She hugs me. "I understand your situation... more or less, it's too soon... and this is complicated. I hope time will make things easier for you."

This embrace reminds me of when I was little. When playing around with my cousin, I fell and scrapped my knee and she would pick me up in her arms, heal me and give me a sweet to make me feel better. Her arms are safety, understanding, familiarity, much like my parents' arms.

We stay like that for some more time, until the food on the fires calls for our attention. She kisses my head, slaps my bottom gently and goes back to cooking. "Hey." I say. "You messed my shirt up with your dirty apron."

She huffs. "Sorry." She sets the table with a wave of her wand. "This is almost finished. Why don't you go change?"

"Alright."

I walk back to my room, looking at the dirt in my t-shirt. I don't even know what my tante was cooking at that moment or even if I will be able to get it off them. I will have to ask her about spells that work with difficult stains. I open the door, push it shut behind me and get startled with the movement inside.

"Oh." I stop just inside as she yelps. Hermione is standing by her bed, only in her underwear. She turns around in shock, trying to cover her body by instinct with the towel she was using to dry her hair.

"Oh, it's you." She sighs and relaxes although she still keeps the towel. I can't stop staring at the pale, perfect skin and the curves of her body. She blushes. "I guess you have seen it all already."

Seriously, I can't help myself... my eyes are about to pop out and I am trying my best to look cool and not creepy. "I guess... but I was otherwise preoccupied with healing..." She gives me a shy smile. God, she is gorgeous. "I'm sorry." I finally look down to the floor. "I stained my t-shirt and I was just coming to change it. I..." My eyes steal another glance.

Hermione shrugs. "I thought you were downstairs." She turns slightly back and gets the clothes she had already lined up on the bed. "If you'll excuse me, I will go back to the bathroom to finish getting dressed and style my hair a bit in the mirror." She walks to the bathroom and out of sight, but leaves the door open to hear me.

I walk to her purse and 'accio' my bag out. "My aunt has dinner almost finished. I will just change my t-shirt and go back down." I take a shirt from it and pull the stained one off. I look at the already dry stain, shaking my head. I suddenly feel a shiver run through my spine and I turn around to find Hermione's head looking out from the bathroom.

She takes her time looking up and down my shirtless self. Even though, it is very hot outside, I am slightly chilly and a little self-conscious. I cover it up putting my hands on my hips, daring, and waiting for her to finish.

"Well, it was only fair." She smirks and disappears into the bathroom. "I will be down in a minute." She closes the bathroom door.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: New chapter, a little rushed because life :(**

**Chapter - 12**

I sit down in my bed, trying to shake out of my head the image of Hermione wearing just her lilac underwear, her wet head cascading down her shoulders. Yes, it is almost impossible for me to let go of that. And that smirk later... I don't dare to hope... just... anything at all about it.

I put on the clean shirt and go downstairs, where I told Hermione I would wait for her. Oncle is already there, happy as ever to see me and more so because we have chosen to stay with them even if it's only for a couple days. Hermione joins a few minutes later and we enjoy a very pleasant meal.

We chat about everything and anything. They want to know about how my life is going, how is work, but also they want to know about Hermione, what she does, what she likes, how did we end up been friends. They are clearly impressed by her and when Hermione shies away from the compliments, I feel the pride for her, to have such an incredible person in my life.

In the afternoon, my Tante and Oncle offer to show us around and they apparate us to some of the most amazing places, making time fly and the night to come in. We have a light dinner out in an amazing place in the beach in Sydney, before apparating back to the house and turn in early. Hermione is simply delighted and even though she has an extensive knowing of the English language, she comes short for words to actually tell them how thankful she is about everything they are doing.

"I am so tired..." Hermione says as she lays into her bed. "Your aunt and uncle are amazing, Fleur."

I smile. "They are, aren't they?" I lay in my bed too. "I love them so much... it's been a while since I last visited. I should do it more often." I can't stop a yawn. "I guess I am tired too."

She chuckles. "Goodnight, Fleur." She whispers.

"Goodnight, Hermione." I whisper back.

"Are we already asleep? Why are we whispering?" She says, still whispering.

I whisper back. "I don't know, you started."

"Goodnight, Fleur." She says in a normal voice.

"Goodnight, Hermione." I close my eyes and let sleep take me.

When I open my eyes again, it is still dark outside. I try to find a more comfortable position in bed and close my eyes again, but then I hear her. She is whimpering again, moving around in her bed, like she is trying to escape for something that it is only in her mind.

Sleepily, I go to her, sit in the edge of the bed and brush the hair out of her face. "Hermione." I call her. She moves away and I fear if she keeps this up she is going to fall of the bed, so I take her arms gently and shake her. "Hermione, it's just a bad dream."

"Fleur?" She whispers, but her eyes are still closed and under her eyelids, they are still moving. She is still dreaming. "Fleur..."

"Yes?" I say. "It's me, Hermione." I try again. "That was just a bad dream."

She relaxes. "Fleur..." She whispers again, her lips actually curving up in a little smile. It makes me smile too. I kiss her forehead and go back to my bed. The sheets are pleasantly colder now.

"Fleur... Fleur..." She is shaking again, more violently if it's possible, and now she is saying my name.

I rise again my suddenly heavy head from my pillow and cross the floor to her bed.

"Ssh... It's okay." She stops shaking. I'm going for a sitting position, but my head weights too much, I lay in the edge of her bed and take her hand. "Push the bad dreams away, Hermione." She protests. "It's okay..." I squeeze her hand and she stops fretting. "I'll just stay here five minutes or so..." I whisper. "Just to make sure they don't come again."

There is a stupid light shining right into my eyes, which is weird, because I sleep as far from the window as I can for this reason. I open one eye just a second and look around the room. What am I doing here?

I would sit up, but there's something pressing my body down to the bed and... actually? my arm is holding something. I open an eye again and there's a mass of hair on my shoulder. "Huh?" I open both my eyes and see Hermione looking very comfortable, using my chest as a pillow, her face in the crook of my neck. I finally remember what happened last night and chuckle.

She starts moving right on cue, still half asleep, I hope. I try to stay as still as I can, but she grabs my sides, trying to move her 'pillow' to its desired position and tickles me. I squirm and the movement wakes her up in surprise.

She opens her beautiful chocolate eyes and looks up at me. She looks so confused it amuses me, but I don't say anything. She looks down to see what she is holding and the first thing she actually sees... are my breasts. She blushes bright red and looks anywhere but me. I can't help but laugh.

She shakes her embarrassment away, huffs and sits herself up looking at me. "What are you doing in my bed?"

"You were having bad dreams again." She frowns and seems deflated. I sit up against the headboard. "When I talked to you, it seemed to help. And at the end, I just fell asleep on the edge of the bed."

Hermione looks plenty interested in her hands. "I guess that's why you were in the dreams. That was new."

"I guess." I shrug. "Hermione... do you have those nightmares every time you go to sleep?"

"No." She shakes her head. "But they happen more often than not."

"I'm sorry." I say. She shrugs.

I start straightening up my hair, making sure it is not shooting all over the place. She pulls her legs to her chest and wraps her arms around them. "They are more memories than dreams, actually." She says quietly and I pay all my attention to her again. "In them, I go back to the floor at the Malfoy Manor and I can't move, I can't even scream. Bellatrix and Greyback are around and I know that they will pounce on me at any time. Maybe they will use the Cruciatus curse again or maybe he will bite me this time."

I am completely horrified, because this is something that she has gone through and must relive most nights in her dreams. I don't know what to say to her.

"Tonight was slightly different, though." She smiles a little and I am curious. "I heard your voice and I thought I was imagining it. But then I saw you in my dream. You took my hand and finally, I could move. It was all over and I could finally sleep and rest in peace." I smile, pleased that at least I could help her. She's in a better mood, now, I can tell.

"That must be when you decided I would be your pillow." I state.

"I didn't hear you complaining." She says, trying to come back at me.

"I was not." I say, with a little smile. "I slept very well."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter - 13**

"Good morning, dear." When I go downstairs, my Tante is already there, making coffee. I grab a stool and sit, my elbows resting on the counter.

"Good morning, Tante. I thought maybe you'd sleep in late today."

"I did sleep more than usual." She shrugs. "I just don't like getting up late, I feel that I have wasted my day and I've done nothing of value... when I could be making pancakes for my niece. You still like them?" I nod enthusiastically, like a little kid, a smile almost splitting my face. "Meanwhile... coffee or tea?"

I walk around and get myself a cup of the coffee already brewed. "Coffee." I add sugar and some milk. I try it and it's perfect. I busy myself next getting the eggs, the flour and a bowl. My Tante is sipping her coffee and getting the rest of the things we will need.

"You look different this morning..." She comments.

"Do I look like I have finally slept for hours?" Maybe I had circles under my eyes. I brush my cheeks just in case.

"No, it's not that..." She keeps staring at me.

"Good morning." Hermione sweeps into the kitchen. "What's going on?"

"My aunt says there's something different about me this morning." She takes the stool I was occupying before, leans on her elbow and examines me.

She seems deep in thought. "I think I know..." I look at her expectantly. She bites her lip. "You look less like a troll after a good night's sleep." My jaw falls open in disbelief and she laughs merrily, her eyes closed.

It's just too easy. The flour sitting there already... I put my fingers in it and paint her forehead, nose and cheeks white. Her jaw falls too, but for just a second. Her brown eyes glint with maliciousness and she is rounding the isle, wiping in her way the flour from her face.

"My friend..." She says calmly. "You didn't think that through..."

My Tante is out of the way, looking amused as she takes beats the eggs in the bowl. "If you make a mess, clean it up." She only contributes.

She is closing on me and I just can squeak. "What are you doing? You started, you called me a troll."

"And you threw me flour! You are going to pay." She finally is right in front of me, her hands rising slowly and I don't know what she's going to do. I am moderately frightened. Those hands stop at the middle and now I am completely scared, walking backwards and away from her until the counter gets in the way. "I think I made quite a discovery this morning..."

"You are ticklish..." She says very amused. I try to stop her, to grab her arms and bend myself, but she finds my stomach and sides and start tickling the hell out of me.

"Stop... stop... please..." I say between laughs. She stops satisfied when I am out of breath from laughing and trying to squirm away from her to no avail.

"And now we are even." She puts her hands on her hips as she too tries to catch her breath. She turns around to my incredibly amused and composes herself. "I'm sorry, Elise. I'll get this flour off my face and I'll come help."

She walks out and I start actually doing something useful, heating the pan. "That was a bit childish."

"A bit..." Tante smiles. She hands me the mix and goes back to her coffee. "I like her... she is a good person and it's exactly the friend you need right now..." She shrugs. "And we sometimes can use some childishness from time to time. It makes our hearts feel younger."

"What happened to Hermione?" Oncle comes into the kitchen. "She looked a little pale." He adds amused.

"Your niece and her friend had a little disagreement." My Tante is less than impressed. My pancakes are coming out quite decent.

"What about?" He asks genuinely interested.

Hermione comes back then, her face cleaned up. "Fleur's resemblance to a troll."

"Ah." He nods as he serves himself a coffee. "I get it... Hermione, do you want some?" She gets a cup and nods. "And what did you conclude?" He pours the cup and passes to her.

"Thanks." She adds some sugar and milk. "I think it was inconclusive." She shrugs. "But I was actually winning." She hides behind the cup of coffee. I glare at her. "I helped knock out a troll when I was eleven, I should know." She goes on.

"Then, she might be right." He says amused. The pancakes are ready. We levitate everything to the table and sit to have breakfast. "So... when are you leaving for your parent's house?"

"After breakfast, I guess..." Hermione answers, giving me a side look.

"We agreed we'd meet them this morning to see if they had made a decision." I squeeze her hand for a second.

"We will probably be here all day, if you need any help."

"Thanks." Hermione says earnestly.

We eat the delicious pancakes and get our things, then we apparate to the surroundings of the Wilkins' house.

"If they choose to stay here, I have been thinking I could accompany you in your trips down here and visit my Tante and Oncle." I comment as we round the house. She smiles and nods. "Ever since the wedding... since the war started... I have been neglecting my family. During, I couldn't visit them because there were many risks. Later..." I shrug, at a loss for words. "My sister resents that I didn't spent the summer holidays with them, that's why she is giving me the cold shoulder, not answering my owls. But it has been hard enough to stay in England."

She stops and I, surprised, stop with her. "Maybe..." Hermione says. "Maybe I could do for you something like what you did for me this weekend... Would it make it easier?" I frown, I was just thinking out loud. I nod slowly. "If it would be of any help, would you let me do this for you?" She grabs my hand and makes me face her.

I shake my head. "You really don't have to..."

"I want to." She says. "That is what friend are for. To support each other in difficult moments. So let me be there for you."

"Okay." She smiles winningly and it makes me smile too.

We keep walking and soon enough we are finally at the Wilkins' door. She knocks and soon enough, Mrs. Granger is opening the door. "Oh, good. You are here. Come on in." She ushers us inside and disappears towards the living room.

"Good morning, Mom." Hermione says quite confused. "What is going on?" As we enter the living room, though, we see boxes spread all around. I smile. Mr. Granger is emptying the bookcases into some of those boxes. He looks up at the new comers, first his daughter, then... me. "Dad?"

He shakes his head. "Hey, Hermione." He smiles. "Who knew you could gather up so many things in just over a year?" He says.

"You are coming back to England?" She asks.

"Yes, dear." Mrs. Granger says, folding some coats into a box. "Your father and I talked about it." She turns to look at her father.

"Yes... It was quite an easy decision once your mother pointed out all the things we would be missing if we stayed here." He shrugs. "Our home, our practice... you." He finishes up with the bookcase and puts his hands on his pockets. "My adventurous self was sated after this time building a new life in Australia... but I think my subconscious was really dreading the part of actually moving back." He gestures to the mess.

Hermione is biting her lip, fighting a huge smile. Her parents seem to be working on forgiving her and they will be near. I knew she didn't want to be selfish and that she was taking herself out of their decision. But it really wasn't the same thing having them in the other side of the planet and having them just a few miles over. I am happy for her.

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, maybe we could help you with a little magic?" I offer. "You could be sleeping home tonight."

I wave my wand and the clothes start folding themselves into the boxes. Another one, and the portraits around the room take themselves off and start entering into another box. Mr. and Mrs. Granger look very impressed. Mrs. Granger looks at me. "Please, continue."

Hermione takes her wand and starts transfiguring the boxes already packed. Then, she leaves her bag on a table and levitates them into it. Mr. Granger is about to ask 'how' but he just shrugs at his daughter's magic. We take one room at a time and the packing is done pretty soon. The Grangers make sure that everything else is in order and say goodbye to this house. We walk around to the spot where we know it's safe to apparate away.

"This won't hurt, will it?" Mr. Granger asks concerned.

Hermione takes his hand. "It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't feel very pleasant either." He looks concerned.

I look to Mrs. Granger and offer her my hand. "It takes getting used to, but it's just seconds." She takes it.

"Just seconds and we are home?" She asks.

"Unfortunately no, Mom." Hermione shakes her head. "Apparition isn't viable this long distance. We'll apparate to Fleur's Tante and Oncle's house and then we'll use the Floo Network - the fireplace transport." They nod. "Now take a deep breath..." She looks at me and we apparate away.

The Grangers bend a little when we step into my Tante's house. "Are you alright?"

"I get now what you say." Mrs. Granger says.

"I know... but we are in Albany now." She explains. "It's much quicker." Mr. Granger, by her side, nods.

"Hello." My Oncle comes into the room. "Ethan and Elise Robinson. We are Fleur's uncle and aunt." He introduces himself, shaking the Granger's hands. "It's nice to meet you." He steps back and lets Tante do the same. "So I guess you are going back to England now?" I nod and he hugs my tightly. "It's been nice to have you here again." He kisses my forehead, lets me go and goes to hug Hermione too.

Tante comes and hugs me around. "Live your life and try to be happy, my dear."

"I will, Tante."

She squeezes hard. "Don't be a stranger." She says as she lets go.

"I won't." I promise.

When the goodbyes are over, Hermione turns to explain her parents the next part. "It will take less than half an hour to make it there." She starts. "To travel in the Floo Network, you have to grab a fistful of Floo powder and walk into the fireplace. You say the place you want to travel to clearly and out loud and the fake fire takes you away. You should keep your elbows pressed to your body, because there might be some bouncing. You'll see a lot of living rooms and kitchens, but you must stay there until you see... me. I will go first and I'll help you get out." They nod. "You must say: 12 Grimmauld Place. Say it out loud for me now."

They do, as confused as I am. Hermione nods and takes a fistful of Floo powder, doing exactly what she told them. She looks at me and I nod, reassuring her. She speaks clearly and drops the powder. The flames swallow her and she vanishes.

"She's fine. She's already traveling in the Network." I assure them. "Mr. Granger, I think you should be next. Let's give her some advantage so that she can get out of the fireplace in the other side and wait for them."

"Is this as uncomfortable as apparition?" Mrs. Granger asks me.

"No... bouncy and it takes longer." I explain. "But it's entertaining to see the different places along the way." I shrug. "Come on, Mr. Granger. Your turn." He grabs a fistful of powder and steps into the fireplace. "Keep your elbows pressed to your body."

"12 Grimmauld Place." I nod and he drops the powder, disappearing into the flames. Mrs. Granger gasps.

"It is okay, Mrs. Granger." She nods and distracts herself by looking around curiously.

"You have a very nice home." She comments after a while. "It's the first magical house I have seen, but it looks very nice." She says.

"Thank you." Tante replies.

"Mrs. Granger, it's time." She nods and does the same as her husband. "Remember the elbows and relax. Hermione and your husband will be in the other side." I smile at her and a few seconds later she disappears too.

"I will visit home... France, soon." I tell my Tante and Oncle. "I haven't been back there since William died. I have been trying to pull myself together since it happened and I fear I will just crumble back again answering all their questions."

"You can't keep avoiding it, avoiding your family." Tante squeezes my hand.

"I know." I nod, embarrassed. "I'll go back soon. Hermione will accompany me, to try and make things easier."

She bites her lip. "That will be... interesting." I wait for an explanation, but she doesn't seem to want to elaborate. She leaves my hand and slaps my butt. "You better be going."

I say my goodbyes and let myself be swallowed by the flames. I entertain myself looking at other people's kitchens and living rooms - like, there is a pig eating a cake in the middle of one and little boy swimming in the air in another one-, until I see Hermione looking into the flames and walk outside.


End file.
